Immediate yes

Someone from the city hall called a few weeks ago. The contracted moderator for a large conference on "Dialog among religions for and with children and young people" had cancelled at the last minute - whether I could step in, in a few hours, and moderate - on the spot? Without hesitation I said "yes", went a few hours later to Berlin's city hall, prepared with prayer and a quick research on the run, and it went so well that people thought I had been the contracted moderator. 
Why did I do that? Had I been transformed into a doormat? Well, I do it, because I know from myself how good it feels to hear this instant word: "Yes". And how rare this happens. 

The reason why I could say "yes" was, of cause, that I could. An appointment for the afternoon had been cancelled a few minutes before the call from city hall, so I was free to do it. I also have the experience of speaking in public. But there was more for me behind it. A long-term experiment, a learning curve of many years which brought me to this freedom and ease.
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I find it pure luxury to meet my day prepared with joy and spiritual authority. "Truth is affirmative and confers harmony", writes Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on p. 418, and the more you let his thought do something with you, the more you see its validity and authenticity. It cannot just be a sentence - it is fact for life. There is a wonderful, shining YES in God, Truth. Preparing my day with Truth helps me to be open for good and willing to serve. I have almost never regretted a yes, but a few no's through the years. 

Since you will meet more "Let me see if it fits my calendar," "I have to think about it," Or, "Well, if I were you, I wouldn't do this but rather do that," and since we cannot change the world, only ourselves, we are up again for being part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. It is as if the obvious lack of immediacy in affirmative responses on our planet interrupts the joyful rhythm of daily life. There is some stumbling, just a little resistance to spoil a good idea or avoid meeting an urgent need. Or move a good project forward. Or ease the burden of a neighbor. There is more wisdom in "yes" than you might think at first - and I promise to write a blog one day about "the immediate no". But not today.

You can run "the instant yes" as a personal experiment and see how it goes. After all, life is all about learning that Love is All, and this might be an aspect of it that explains this concept to you. It has to be practical, otherwise forget it. We can start by looking at requests of help as a ball thrown at us. Will we join in? Is it probably a divine calling? Lets find out.

Christ Jesus is inviting us to join in the game of the daily interchange of love - he teaching a kind of unambitious, attitude of instant unselfishness towards others:

“You have heard that it used to be said ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, but I tell you, don’t resist the man who wants to harm you. If a man hits your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.
“If a man wants to sue you for your coat, let him have it and your overcoat as well. If anybody forces you to go a mile with him, do more—go two miles with him."
(Matthew 5, from the J.B.Phillips New Testament)